ibisfeather
masterpiece in new kdrama international formats
A gem. 10 episodes at 1hr ea. and the first really brilliant kdrama in the new international streaming formats.
Woo Do Hwan was born to play this role: a tragi-comic loner with a big heart and a mordant sensibility. No other current leading drama actor could have carried off this character's combination of sensuality and innocence in the squalid universe in which he lives. In the Korean context his theory of the life of a drifter as an essential micro-organism in the life of society is fundamentally radical. As a runaway from the psychologically unbearable life of a 'good son' in the Korean upper middle class he also has the chameleonic-like ability to insert himself into varying social strata which is necessary to a conman, but he uses these abilities to help others (for big bucks of course).
An original script which combines generic expectations from kdrama (romedy and crime) and from the common international cinematic universe (road movies, riches to rags sociological commentary). These serve to maintain dramatic interest and emotional involvement while still streamlining out some of the more baroque parts of lengthier classic kdrama.
As a road movie, relationships are developed and memories are dissected by two characters at a time, in the intimate space of the two front seats or while dashing in and out of roadside eateries. Theatrically, the setting i sthe fluid life of the underclass in a time of extreme social stratification which has been eternally fascinating whether in the cinema of mid-century US and Europe or in 21st century Korean films and drama.
The farce-like stock characters of kdrama (and some less common ones) set up expectations in the viewer which are quietly subverted as their pasts and present are slowly revealed. And some of my favourite stock memes still remain: a funny love triangle, an end-episodes reintegration of the small band and bonds of the main characters, standard and wickedly funny gang involvement, fields of onggi and in-jokes, for ex. a vaguely (not!) familiar, mysterious korean-american character -- here a bodyguard who wears sunglasses to hide his tears.
In fact the slow and subversive development of the character arcs is the heart of the drama so I have to stop here to avoid spoilers. GO RIGHT NOW TO THE SHOWPAGE and start watching with a fresh and happy mind open to this wonderful tear-jerker of a romedy-action-road drama.
Woo Do Hwan was born to play this role: a tragi-comic loner with a big heart and a mordant sensibility. No other current leading drama actor could have carried off this character's combination of sensuality and innocence in the squalid universe in which he lives. In the Korean context his theory of the life of a drifter as an essential micro-organism in the life of society is fundamentally radical. As a runaway from the psychologically unbearable life of a 'good son' in the Korean upper middle class he also has the chameleonic-like ability to insert himself into varying social strata which is necessary to a conman, but he uses these abilities to help others (for big bucks of course).
An original script which combines generic expectations from kdrama (romedy and crime) and from the common international cinematic universe (road movies, riches to rags sociological commentary). These serve to maintain dramatic interest and emotional involvement while still streamlining out some of the more baroque parts of lengthier classic kdrama.
As a road movie, relationships are developed and memories are dissected by two characters at a time, in the intimate space of the two front seats or while dashing in and out of roadside eateries. Theatrically, the setting i sthe fluid life of the underclass in a time of extreme social stratification which has been eternally fascinating whether in the cinema of mid-century US and Europe or in 21st century Korean films and drama.
The farce-like stock characters of kdrama (and some less common ones) set up expectations in the viewer which are quietly subverted as their pasts and present are slowly revealed. And some of my favourite stock memes still remain: a funny love triangle, an end-episodes reintegration of the small band and bonds of the main characters, standard and wickedly funny gang involvement, fields of onggi and in-jokes, for ex. a vaguely (not!) familiar, mysterious korean-american character -- here a bodyguard who wears sunglasses to hide his tears.
In fact the slow and subversive development of the character arcs is the heart of the drama so I have to stop here to avoid spoilers. GO RIGHT NOW TO THE SHOWPAGE and start watching with a fresh and happy mind open to this wonderful tear-jerker of a romedy-action-road drama.
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